This poll, fielded November, 2011, and the second of three, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicits public opinion on a range of political and social issues. Respondents were asked about whether the country was moving in the right direction, the importance of buying products made in the United States, and United States business practices. A variety of social questions sought opinions about what chore respondents' most disliked, Apple Inc., the danger of vaccinations, email etiquette, whether they would go back to sc... (more info)

This poll, fielded November, 2011, and the second of three, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicits public opinion on a range of political and social issues. Respondents were asked about whether the country was moving in the right direction, the importance of buying products made in the United States, and United States business practices. A variety of social questions sought opinions about what chore respondents' most disliked, Apple Inc., the danger of vaccinations, email etiquette, whether they would go back to school if it was free, and the most important phrase to learn before traveling. Supplementary questions asked respondents to guess Mitt Romney's first name and how many people they thought lived in the United States, whether there should be a global religion, whether they supported the Tea Party movement and/or the Occupy Wall Street movement, and whether they opposed the reinstatement of the military draft. Finally, respondents were asked about their personal finances and holiday shopping, as well as other holiday related questions. Demographic information includes sex, age, race, marital status, education level, household income, employment status, religious preference and participation, whether respondents thought of themselves as born-again Christians, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status, voting behavior, whether they served in the armed forces, household composition, and the number of phones in their household.

Methodology

Sample:
A variation of random-digit dialing (RDD) using primary sampling units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by geographic region, area code, and size of place. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. Within households, respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1963).

Time Method:
Cross-sectional

Weight:
The data contain a weight variable that should be used in analyzing the data. According to the CBS News Web site, the data were weighted to match United States Census Bureau breakdowns on age, sex, race, education, and region of the country. The data were also adjusted for the fact that people who share a telephone with others have less chance to be contacted than people who live alone and have their own telephones, and that households with more than one telephone number have more chances to be called than households with only one telephone number.

Mode of Data Collection:
telephone interview

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: